48) DATE: 31 July 2010 25th Death Anniversary of My Father & ‘Common of Pastors/Holy Men’ ~ St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
TO: My Son, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, C.D.P./O.S.B./S.N.D.de N., Grand Hensgens/Reiners/Pontons/Monlezuns/From-The-Ridge Families!, Friends of Old and Strangers-No-Longer!
This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ sent periodically…this ‘Web of Gratefulness’ www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend, share & teach…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place to bear witness with zeal and joy, row by row!
+ Interestingly my father shares his death date with St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus better known as the Jesuits (S.J.), who was of Spanish Basque (northern part ~ San Sebastian) descent!! My father is of French Basque (southern France) descent with the Pyrenees Mts. separating the short distance. My husband’s lineage/Pontón is Spanish Basque and of the same region as St. Ignatius!! Therefore our son is of French & Spanish Basque and German lineage! Hence my scheduled trip next month to Nevada where it has been arranged to meet with the Librarian/Archivist with the Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada/Reno; will also meet with an Genealogist Specialist/Professor, Historian and an Archeologist in that this area is rich in the study of the settlement of Basque immigrants. We have a full schedule meeting, dining on Basque cuisine, asking/listening, reading, Holy Mass at the Catholic Chapel on campus and gathering electronic information for further study. ‘The Living Room’ in my ancestral home of origin in Lake Arthur, LA is of my Basque lineage with some history/pics and soon much more knowledge will flow and on my website indeed! http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/8_The_Living_Room_002.pdf Now, to get to these respective areas in Spain/France with boots on the ground is on the table!! I cannot wait to track these streams of lineage and watch them come together, in His time! (10 Lineage-Trees are what I am tracking in time!!)
+ Our son, Antoine, is featured in a promotional video distributed by Wake County Meals on Wheels/Raleigh, NC and it is a wonderful story! Gawd. he looks like Hectór! Click and enjoy! http://www.leadkindlylight.net/weloveyoumorethanlifeitself.htm We are so very proud of him as I rode the scheduled route experiencing the needs and he filling a part of that need, twice a month!! He tah-tahs them so well!! He has signed up many of his friends to step forward and serve. This is solid apostolic action; also, he is discerning a call, along with two of his friends, to organize a Catholic Young Adult Bible Study (2% Catholics in NC!!) The two wonderful young man/lady teach at the Catholic High School/Departments of Religion and History!! I suggested he serve boudin, gumbo and tostones in his condo to kick things off!! Let us pray…!
Bishop Speyrer (Fr. Pelous), you were my religion teacher/s and look what you planted after the good and right example of my wonderful parents!! And, Suzanne Louise, the 18th grandchild and 5th of my 5 nieces earned the Religion Award/8th grade May 2010 graduation!!! She too knows, lives and explains her faith beautifully and articulately at such a young age shepherded by her wonderful parents…The harvest is plenty laborers are few, come with me into the fields…your arms will grow weary, your shoes will wear thin…perfect song! http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/10_The_Back_Room_000.pdf
The first day out with the craft anchored in a harbor he hears Wayne Toups’ music wafting across the water!! He couldn’t believe it saying immediately to his friends, “I am taking the dingy over, those are my people and who is coming with me!!?” It was a charter of folks from Grand Chenier, LA!! Many were taught by cousin Renee’s parents, knew she and her siblings, plus so many others!!! What an aquatic visit, sha! And, on the last day Antoine ran into Hector’s wonderful first cousin Miriam, a Pontón from P.R., in the Tortola airport where she recognized him as looking just like her beloved Hectór Rafael!! Small Caribbean theater indeed!!, Antoine’s friends were absolutely stunned! Next year, Antoines’ sight is on Rome, CEO Hdqtrs. Hectórs’ quip for the Eternal City, with a few good friends in tow!!
+ Action is a-poppin around Arthur Avenue (my home of origin) I have organized a “Timeline and Arthur Avenue Events List” (2001 to Fall 2010!)
http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/5.BMP_Binders_Heritage_ASCollections_004.pdf
· (Have a pot of coffee ready, the slow drip kind! It has been fascinating to compile from The Binders! So much can be shared when one is delightfully and gratefully inspired to pass on all good things from ministries galore to the generations before all the way to The Father Himself! Adults, young adults and children come to learn and I love this venue of sharing so that all might win! I am filled with gratefulness to my elder and younger brother for their good stewardship so that many can have this wonderful story experience; our home stays in tiptop condition! (You’re invited for a Heritage Tour, no charge to hear the stories!!!) http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/13_Arthur_Avenue_Heritage_Tours_003.pdf
Scheduled Silent Retreats begin with 8:30 am Mass in the church then to Arthur Avenue ~ for the L.A. Catholic Daughters, Teacher/Principal/St. Peter School; Junior CDA AAHeritage Tour is in process.
An invitation has been accepted by the director and staff of the SWLA Genealogical and Historical Library for a AAHeritage Tour!! I have accepted an invitation to humbly present through this library my ‘Hensgens/Reiners Family Heritage Sequence’ (my maternal lineage) which will be presented for the second time at Germanfest October 2nd and 3rd, 2010 in Roberts Cove LA (home soil of my mother!!) Everybody wins, again!!! This library presentation will be aired on their LAGov television network… http://www.cppj.net/index.aspx?page=414 for scheduling. I would like to have requisite Lake Arthur Historian People for this Heritage Tour in that idea has been advanced to film Oral Histories with said people for the JDavisParish website.
In the meantime on Arthur Avenue many Weeping Crepe Myrtles are blooming, Rain & Red Maple Trees and Acacia are bursting forth, the new fence pops the Cleveland Flowering Pear trees planted along the boulevard, figs were picked, shared and relished, the rooms/artifacts have settled in for all who find their way to her back door. For pics/text… http://www.leadkindlylight.net/RoombyRoom.htm (‘Outdoors’ lists the canon of plantings to include heritage plantings!!)
+ The OSB (Goretti) Sisters, Holy Angels Convent Arkansas once again hosted an Oblate Spiritual Day. I spoke to my outline of Benedictine Monastic Spirituality including Prayer, Study, Labor and Re-creation/Holy Leisure as well as Ordering the Home, Time Management with a Christian Perspective, a Wiring Diagram of the Roman Catholic Church and my Organization Wheel of Ministry!! Three two hour sessions and loved every minute of it!
“My day dawns at 4:30 a.m.; I rise to humbly pray forward the monastic rhythm in my domestic church in ordered time and in a relaxed manner! My prayers drift upward with the burning votive for each of your intentions spoken and unspoken known only to God. It certainly abodes well in faith for we are all called to a life of holiness. This call is truly living with an open mind…that is, open to hearing The Father’s call to His will and way in our lives and being mindful that His hand is on us. He knows all! That is why He has bestowed upon us the gift of the Sacraments especially Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation for those who know when to partake of such an awesome Sacrament. How cleansing! How right! How loving a Father He is! This is an all-time happening waiting for all God’s people! It is all mystery and grace!”
Excerpt from BMP Talk/Oblates/Holy Angels Convent/AR/March & July 2010…and are hearing again in this venue shared!! http://www.leadkindlylight.net/READ_READ_READ.htm
(I called Sr. Romana to the board to speak a word to the Office of Compline! She had done her homework and passed with flying colors!! Thank you, Sister!)
++Sharing the ‘Goretti Sisters’ Binder that lives on Arthur Avenue!!
++Sr. Romana presenting her homework!!
++Peanut Plant from Grand Chenier!
Wonderful! Wonderful indeed!! Hectór continues to ‘Translate’ part-time in the judicial system, golf, sail and prepare the best frittatas in the whole wide world! He will be visiting his 95 year old mother in Puerto Rico soon.
*** I can’t wait to read my parents letters to us over the many years while we moved around the world; historical preservation at its most poignant!
+ Masterworks Chorale text is up for the 2010-2011 season! Enjoy knowing this lovely music is in the local air! http://www.leadkindlylight.net/WhereAreMyKeysandLetsGoMainPage.htm
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!! (LKL) The giant who wrote this poem is Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman! He will be beautified this year as El Papa will be in Great Britain in September 2010. He was an Anglican Vicar, converted to Catholicism and penned LKL in the darkness of the night on a ship bound for Rome and home! The loveliest of yearnings…http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/prayers_004.pdf
28 July 2010 ~ Just received below from Kay Francis Gauthreaux-Dugruise, First Cousin…Wonderful Lady who is a Catechist with the Diocese of Houma-Thibodeaux, LA; also plays a mean piano along with her elder sister! Very interesting and inspiring clip…Thank you, Kay!
She writes “For those of you who have never seen a short list of Catholic converts, many of whom you will no doubt know,
but there are many here who you will not know. Here is a short Youtube video of some of those Catholic Converts.” What
timing!!! |
49) Today’s Date: 1 December 2010 first Wednesday in this first week of Advent
To: The Extended Family of Lee Joseph and Anna Gertrude Hensgens-Monlezun
Re: Christmas December 2010!
In gratitude we gather for this annual tradition begun decades ago and continues by the opening of our home of origin as well as our hearts, especially for the little ones and the newest members of the extended families! We are humbled to have the opportunity to celebrate together the Eve of the Incarnation of the Word of God made Flesh. This is the home where we were made flesh, formed, and as part of the ancestral cadre of foremothers and forefathers, pass it on in gleeful gathering, song, prayer, food, choral hayride, children’s gift exchange, swapping stories and Offerings at Arthur Avenue on Christmas Eve!
As Mom and Dad would say, “Come if you can!”
1) High Noon ~ Food/Beverage:
2) 3:00 p.m. ~ Choral Hayride! Guitars welcomed!
3) 5:30 pm ~ Santa Claus arrives from the east (!) as the children gather round to welcome him for he wants to lead this chorale of sweet voices in singing softly and tenderly “Happy Birthday” to Baby Jesus, on this “Silent Night, Holy Night!”
4) Two Nativity Mass Schedules!
1) 7:00 pm ~ Our Lady of Seven Dolors in Welsh and 2) Midnight Mass in Lake Charles commencing with a ‘Concert of Carols with the ‘OLQH Christmas Community Choir’ and congregation at 11:00 pm!
Offerings:
+ An ‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Tour’ for the great-grandchildren/descendants for they can hear what many children are hearing in this home of their ancestors/those who have gone before! You are invited to click http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/15_EVENTSONARTHURAVENUEALLTHEYEARLONG.pdf
Incredible ministry indeed!
+ A PowerPoint presentation in the ‘Back Room,’ set on replay (!), of ‘Basque History’ experienced during my visit to the University of Nevada-Reno ‘Center for Basques Studies’ September 2010. The PPt. and textbook “Basque Culture” is gift from Xabier Irujo, Ph.D., History http://basque.unr.edu/
In Gratefulness ~
Dominique Joseph and Lee Joseph for home, the old red hayride Ford, Santa Claus and his precious two elves & Mrs. Claus, Constance Victoria for arranging Santa’s arrival & for organizing the children’s name-pull, and Robert Dale Istre for preparing & delivering the gumbo, rice & potato salad! Thank you cousin Renee Reina for tending the additional flora planted throughout the year in the beautiful yard, and Brothers Two for the new and wonderful fence which seems to have begun the complete revitalization of the little town of Lake Arthur ~ beaucoup new business openings in just one year!!! …And, On December 2010, Mom’s 89th birthday, we will as she used to say, ”put it all back” until next year!
Wise ones still seek Him for He Leads O so Steadily!
Blessed Advent and Christmas Season!
Lead, Kindly Light!
Anna Bernadette, Caretaker! Chronicler!
www.leadkindlylight.net … for all good things!
50) SUBJECT: ‘Happenings’ & Monlezun Family EXCEL
DATE: 7 October 2011 Our Lady of the Rosary!! Pray for us!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón
TO: The Greater Monlezun Family
RE: See attachments:
1- “Happenings!”
2- Lee Joseph and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun Family EXCEL!
I have developed an EXCEL template for the ‘Greater Hensgens Family’ biennial reunions the most recent held in Roberts Cove, LA April 2011.
Attachment #2 for you contains EXCEL contact data and, my favorite, generations in colors!! It then totals Monlezun family members (72), deceased (4), living family members (68) and direct descendants (46).
An EXCEL program is compiled for each Family of Hensgens (3 sons), Habetz, Monlezun, Berken and Gauthreaux and is now utilized as the sign-in reunion sheet for updates to be made then and there!
Tis an honor and privilege to tabulate and track data for the Families and Reunions of Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens subsequently of Lee Joseph and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun!
All data is constantly being updated and made current which never ends/wonderful!
For a particularly poignant entry about the daughter-in-law of Marcella Elizabeth ‘Mel’ Habetz-Gossen who is terminally ill you are invited to go to ‘Read! Read! Read!’ and scroll to ‘Fay Fruge-Gossen.’ ‘LKL’ television interview streaming 11 September 2011. Her words resonate, “I can honestly say my biggest fear is not that my children will lose their mother; rather, it is that they will lose their faith. The guidance and protection I can provide for them on this earth is limited, but the life that God can provide for them is eternal.” May God Bless and Keep Them!
What a decade! Other updated data/TOTALS TO DATE:
…links on my ‘Web of Gratefulness!’
275 attendees
What an honor and privilege to pray all forward especially ‘Silent Retreats’ and ‘Place Based Heritage Education’ for the 4th graders, principals, teachers, parents and grandparents in our ancestral home of origin! Their little darting eyes…the way they respectfully look and wonder ~ their whimsical but sincere questions, like ‘what’s a hobo?!’ (who lived in the attic!!!) Three schools a year and soon a fourth are now scheduled! Mon Dieu! Thank you, Father, for they now see how to tape up their familial pics and commence!
Our son, the ‘Associate Agent’ with the Raleigh, NC Grimes Insurance Group, LLC/Nationwide in Property and Casualty (one month today!), is in Annapolis, MD this weekend enjoying a Sailboat Extravaganza!!! He has been able to visit our former townhouse/Ft. McNair block in SW D.C. and stroll around the Tidal Basin area where we would push him in his stroller four blocks from the nations’ Capitol!!
Notation! Daddy operated “Lee’s Insurance Agency” with Eagle Star Insurance Company, operating continuously since 1807 as well as Niagara Fire Insurance Company, organized 1850, and his was ‘the first family to be insured under Washington Life’s new family policy May 1960!!!’
Tis in the DNA!! Um…I wonder if he packed boat insurance forms for all?
I have wonderful conjectures for Germanfest 2012 which involves a “St. Leo Grounds Walk About!!” & words on a big screen inviting all to sing along…still thinking! Was again invited to direct the ‘Germanfest Folk Singers’ 43 voices strong with Constance Victoria as yodler-in-training (!) sounding very authentic and ‘Josef’ Wayne on the guitar! Too much fun indeed! Robert and Wanda were standing in the aisle with big smiles as I had turned to lead the audience in song…they joined Alberta and Marcy at table and sang along just in time to hear the ‘yodler!!!’ John Paul stayed on the itty-bitty- train in Kiddieland as he clutched his ‘Thomas the Train’; too cute awaiting his brother, Jacob Joseph’s imminent arrival!
‘And another thing!’... You are invited to go to ‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Tours’ and scroll to #19 (Mel’s son and wife) and # 20 (Reiners)-Resi Knoben, M.D. from Germany, the only relative we have met from that entire ancestral lineage, attended Germanfest and met a thousand relatives in two days then experienced the German Room on Arthur Avenue!!! Enjoy!!
Gratefulness eternally to Lee Jr. and Dominique Joseph for co-ownership and caring for our ancestral home of origin! I am constantly in awe and reverence of our ancestral heritage, faith, work ethic and will and then to share it all with those who find their way to the back door and beyond! Excellent!
Enjoy utilizing your EXCEL! LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
51. 5 October 2010
Dear Ones ~ Germanfest Folk Singers and Musicians!
What glorious and lovely days indeed! Thank you for your heart, voice, being and soul in the two performances during Germanfest 2010!! The ancestors were rewarded for delivering your Novena straight to The Father Himself…they heard your singing at the top of your voices all the way to heaven! It was beautiful, exuberant, full, lively, on key and in rhythm! You should be especially proud of yourselves. And, you held your books up and never stopped smiling and enjoying the words you were praying forward for all…we are truly the Body of Christ making joyful sounds unto the Lord! You evidenced that this weekend past!
I appreciate Josie and Rusty’s work in organizing all for all! It is an annual pilgrimage toward the first and subsequent rehearsals plus the performances.
Renee and I visited with Joseph and Anna Kormesser after our last Sunday rehearsal. They were in fine spirits and were praying for us as we pray for them. I sang the ‘Benediction Song’ to the tune of Edelweiss and, well, his face was angelic as he is Austrian you know!!
It was wonderful seeing Blaise and Bernardine Leonards in the audience right up front and center singing and smiling and weeping with joy. We pray them forward appreciating their years of membership and heart for all things of their beloved Cove. Vincent Zaunbrecher, you gave your all for our So Ein Tag with ne’er a blink but steady as she goes!! Now we sing songs of prayer for them and all who need our one-voice-supplications as they face medical challenges known and unknown.
Thank you Simone and musicians for your fine rhythm and smiles! You fill us out albeit in a tight space! Simone, thank God your hand is being seen by an orthopedic surgeon and pray all will go well before, during and post-surgery Tuesday 26 October. You were beaming as you enjoyed your ‘family’ while holding us in rhythmic focus.
I continue to direct through the night in my sleep as I loved every minute …and, love each
of you my Greater Family! Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and our precious Roberts Cove Germanfest 2010.
Lead, Kindly Light!
Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Director, Germanfest Folk Singers
Daughter of Anna 'Gertrude' Hensgens-Monlezun who loved her Germanfest Folk Singers!!
52) 8 December 2011 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary/Holy Day of Obligation!!
To: The Extended Family of Lee Joseph and Anna Gertrude Hensgens-Monlezun
Re: Christmas Eve Saturday 24 December 2011!
In gratitude we gather for this annual tradition begun decades ago and continues by the opening of our home of origin as well as our hearts, especially for the little ones! We are humbled to have the opportunity to celebrate together the Eve of the Incarnation of the Word of God made Flesh. This is the home where we were made flesh, formed, and as part of the ancestral cadre of foremothers and forefathers, pass it on in gleeful gathering, song, prayer, food, choral hayride, children’s gift exchange, and swapping stories at Arthur Avenue on Christmas Eve! As Mom and Dad would say, “Come if you can!”
1) High Noon ~ Food/Beverage:
2) 3:00 p.m. ~ Choral Hayride! Guitars welcomed!
3) 5:30 pm ~ Santa Claus arrives from the east (!) as the children gather round to welcome him for he wants to lead this chorale of sweet voices in singing softly and tenderly “Happy Birthday” to Baby Jesus, on this “Silent Night, Holy Night!”
4) Christmas Mass Schedules!
1) Our Lady of Seven Dolors, Welsh 7:00 p.m. (Eve) & 8:00 a.m. (Day)
2) Our Lady of the Lake, Lake Arthur ~ 12:00 Midnight (Eve); 7:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m. (Day)
3) Our Lady Queen of Heaven, Lake Charles ~ 12:00 Midnight (Eve) commencing with a ‘Concert of Carols at 11:00 p.m.;7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. (Day)
LINKS! Ah, the Spirituality and Work of Heritage ~ Too wonderful!! Enjoy!!
Heritage and Archival Special Collections!
http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/2._ABMPonton_Timeline_004.pdf
Arthur Avenue!
http://www.leadkindlylight.net/RoombyRoom.htm
Songs, Recipes and Prayers! ‘Letter from Jesus’ (#71) from a Goretti Sister!
http://www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/Prayers.pdf
In Gratefulness ~
Dominique Joseph and Lee Joseph Jr. for home and the old red Ford!, Santa Claus, Constance Victoria for arranging Santa’s arrival & organizing the children’s name-pull, and Robert Dale Istre for preparing & delivering the gumbo, rice & potato salad! Thank you cousin Renee Reina for all-the-year-long-work to include the planting and tending of the additional flora planted throughout the year in the beautiful yard! And, on 27 December 2011, Mom’s 90th birthday, we will as she used to say…”put it all back” until next year!
Wise ones still seek Him for He Leads O so Steadily!
Blessed Advent and Christmas Season!
Lead, Kindly Light!
Anna Bernadette, Caretaker! Chronicler!
P.S. Sarah Elizabeth Darbonne-Green ~ As per your request Ms. Renee is eyeing all nooks and crannies for placement of sections of her magical Snow Village; it will be uniquely ready for the little & big ones!!